Game Politics

As the smoke begins to clear on last week's school shooting at Montreal's Dawson College, Canadian media pundits are offering opinions on the relationship between violent video games and the rampage. In the Calgary Sun, columnist Licia Corbella writes:

"You are what you eat. Garbage in, garbage out... if you consume violence, you will be violent... Kimveer Gill practiced what he preached... He acted out on the music he listened to, the games he played... His favourite video game was Super Columbine Massacre RPG..."

"In a fascinating, if not utterly maddening interview... (Super Columbine designer Danny) Ledonne calls his disgraceful, exploitative game 'art' and 'social commentary' ...That someone who would create a 'game' so cruel, insensitive and immoral can then speak of morals is galling and hypocritical in the extreme."

"Is Ledonne partly responsible for Wednesday's mayhem? Legally, no. But what about morally?"
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By now, most GamePolitics readers know that Dawson College shooter Kimveer Gill listed the controversial Postal series, published by Running With Scissors, among his favorite games.

In a blog post sometime prior to Wednesday's rampage, Gill wrote, "(game protagonist) Postal Dude kicks ass. If anyone out there hasn't played Postal... I suggest you do. And do it right now."

The National Post reached Running With Scissors CEO Vince Desiderio - often called Vince Desi - for comment:

"This is way past the game, this is tragic," Desiderio said. "People need to learn that there's a difference between entertainment and acting out in reality. I know that people will say that, 'Violent games caused this,' but millions of people play these games around the world and the good news is that only rarely do one or two people go berserk like this."

For Jason Della Rocca, the Dawson College shootings hit close to home. The president of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) grew up in Montreal.

Della Rocca was interviewed on CTV about the rampage and also posted his thought on his Reality Panic blog, where he wrote:

"When I first read the headline... there was a wave of shock (and of course a concern for those hurt). Growing up in Montreal, I have many friends/family who went to Dawson and still know a few teachers there."
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